The Return Home Part 2

When the ship jolted, and Lt. Winchester gave the command to drop the cloak, Dodd ordered it powered down. There was an eerie sound and the device was off. The rest of the staff hit the ground running to be sure to keep the power on and the ship in one piece.

“Sir, there are some funny readings coming from a section of the Jeffries tubes,” Pril reported to her chief. “I try to pinpoint the cause and then it corrects itself. Should we bother with it now?”

“Keep an eye on it, for now, we need to be at the ready,” Dodd replied. “I will see what the situation is just as soon as we figure out how to get out of this battle that appears to have started. For now, keep watch and if it gets worse or you can pinpoint the source, let me know. Let’s get all the power we can to secure our shields and weapons as well as keeping life support operating. So glad to be back in my engineering department.”

“Roger, Sir,” Pril replied.

“Sir, the warp core will need twenty minutes to return to full power and I will let you know when we can go to maximum, but for now we could achieve warp seven without any issue,” Nelson reported to Dodd.

“Thank you, for the update and the good work keeping this department working smoothly. I owe you some shore leave when we can work it out.” Dodd replied.

"Shields holding, but down 12%!" Southern shouted out from her post at the shield controls. Lauren was enlisted but she loved space. You never knew what would happen. Including being attacked in an alternate reality by the Jem'Hadar.

"It looks like this reality's Jem'Hadar have stronger weapons than ours," Tjaansz said, as she tapped the controls quickly, interspersed with her pointed tail tapping along as if it were another hand. "Computer analysis says their weapons also have a disruptive effect on the shields that cause them to regenerate less effectively. In other words, each hit does more damage than the last one."

Dodd simply nodded and went about his duties.

- Lower Decks - Swiftpaw’s Den-

Sheela lay snuggled in her blankets, sound asleep in her bed. Ears would perk up briefly and then relax or twitched then went still as she slept. Occasionally her tail would twitch nerve impulses.

- Bridge -

As the crew were going about their business “attack pattern omega” Somers said then looked over at the lift doors a tall marine with special glasses ducked to get out of the lift and approach her, she bent down and whispered in her ear “Mission success Captain, shuttle flight logs and such have been wiped, Lieutenant Dodd has been instructed not to mention the mission in his logs or any other thing, he had been told that it never happened” Donovan said then stood up again.

Looking up at Donovan “Thank you, Major, now I need you to organize Security, just in case we get boarded,” Somers said.

Donovan nodded, “Will do Captain, as for my partner in crime he did well, and appeared to enjoy his task,” Donovan said with a smile.

“Thanks, S’arila,” Somers said and watched the Major leave the bridge.

The Kazarite doctor had an idea. S/he began to check hir sensors for a way to execute it. After a moment, s/he came up with a solution. “Captain, in this universe, it appears the Genesis Planet was never created. The Mutara Nebula still exists, and it’s near-by, we should be able to mask our signature from the Jem’Hadar in there.”

“That would be a tactical solution to our problem Captain” replied Paul looking up from his console, he continued” our own sensors would not be good” he finished his report “but nor would there’s”

As they were cloaked now, she thought about it “good idea, but it is in the opposite direction, Helm set course for the Taurus Dark Cloud best speed, keep us cloaked” she said then looked at Sterling “Commander get below and see what damage we are dealing with and how many casualties we have” Somers said.

“Yes Captain, the helmsman responded”

“Aye Captain,” Maia said and left the bridge.

When her First Officer had gone she looked at Winchester, “run a level two diagnostic on the weapons and defensive systems, hopefully, we will have given them the slip, but it will be nice if our weapons do not give out mid-combat” Somers said.

Paul replied” Diagnostic started and will last 2 hours Captain” as he started the system, he hoped that by the time the results came back they would be ready to go home.

“Okay people lets secure things, the ride back will be a little rougher than when we arrived I would wager, so make sure all non-essential systems are secured and supplies secured and locked down, I want to level two diagnostics all around” Somers ordered.

”YES, SIR!” All those remaining on the bridge responded and got to work.

– Engineering –

Dodd was working with Nelson to get the cloaking device restored and having Pril work to coordinate all stations to get insecure running which means to have all equipment stowed safely and securely for an anticipated ride ahead.

Much of engineering was ready for the tasks ahead and all were complying with orders and all were very anxious to get back to our reality and hopefully some R & R as well.

“As for what I am aware of, only Pril has noticed the unusual readings when we shut down the cloaking device,” Nelson replied.

“Okay, I will follow up with her and see what we can do about it once we get this device back to par,” Dodd responded.

Commander Sterling entered engineering about five minutes later. She asked an ensign where Lt Dodd was and went to find him.

When she spotted him, he was busy directing traffic to restore systems.

“Status report Mr Dodd,” she ordered.

“Hello, Commander.” Dodd greeted Sterling. “The status of engineering is good. All major systems are restored, and we are working on the secondary systems to make sure they are good to go for what we expect to be a rough ride ahead.”

“Very good Mr Dodd, what is the status of the communications array”? Maia asked.

“The communications array is at full capacity. Only thing is there is an anomaly that seems to be making it seem like it is on the fritz. I have my best communications technician working on finding a solution.”

"Perhaps I should take a look, I did design it after all," Maia said

“One more thing, one of my staff has noticed what is seeming like a recurring sensor glitch in the environmental control in the Jefferies tubes. However, the reading correct themselves so we have remained focused on the larger tasks. But it is concerning me in the fact that one occurrence wonder mot bothers me but Petty Officer Pril has noticed it five times as she has been monitoring repairs,” Dodd added before the commander could turn around.

"Run a level three diagnostic on it, if that doesn't find anything then reprogram the sensors to adjust for the anomaly," Maia said.

– Sickbay –

Dr Cahill checked on things once the fighting was over. She found only minor injuries and had signed off to return them to duty. Only one needed to stay in Sickbay he received a head injury and needed to be monitored for 24 hours.

She sent a copy to the Captain and went to her office and started looking at some things in private. She was on thin ice if anyone asked, but in her office, no one would see what she was doing.

Also, every patient and everything in Sickbay was secured to make ready for the return home.

Shortly after her trip to engineering Maia entered sickbay. “Hey Doc, how many casualties do we have”? Maia asked.

Dr Cahill replied, “Hello Commander, all is good had 22 minor injuries that were treated and return to duty. Just minor cuts and scrapes. And one that needs to stay in Sickbay 24 hours due to having a concussion. It is normal protocol. He is ok just being safe.”

“All systems in Sickbay are working fine with no problems as well. All systems go if we are needed. Everything and all patients are secured for the return trip home. Just in case it is as rough as when we came here.”

“All essential personnel have safety harnesses to secure themselves if the need to treat patients while we are returning as well.”

“Here is a full report on what we did in Sickbay.” Dr Cahill, I passed her the Padd.

“Do you require any medical attention Commander?”

“Not that I know of Doctor. The captain wanted me to check on things”. Maia scanned the Padd.

“Doesn’t look like too many casualties. I can’t believe the Dominion in this reality took it so easy on us,” Maia said.

“Me neither, I figured we would be in for heavy repairs and also heavy casualties. I wonder what is going on myself. I thought you and I had the best plan there was to get us home. But all I can do is hope we can still get home.”

"If we can get the array repaired I think we will be in good shape, the satellites we undamaged". Maia replied.

- Bridge -

Over the Communications the Captain spoke to the whole crew…

=/\= All hands this is the Captain, stand down to Yellow Alert, all maintenance crews to damaged areas, all departments report any injured to Medical, the Jem`Hadar patrol has been taken care of and we have re-cloaked, but if these hostiles are like the Dominion of our reality then they would have called in support, so we are heading out towards the Taurus Dark cloud at max warp, good work people, Bridge out =/\=

Doctor Aldana brought up the cloaking device readouts to make sure it was running correctly and monitor it. Meanwhile, in another display screen, s/he kept an eye on the sensors to watch out for anomalous scans or ships.

Sensing a shift in the chemical and hormone levels in Aldana’s brain, Sombra squirmed and poked his head into hir lap, trying to encourage hir to help manage them by petting him or massaging his ears. (Plus, he had an itch and with any luck s/he finds it and he’d get it scratched.)

After a while, Aldana’s computer terminal gave off a slight ‘blip’ “Contact. Captain, I have an anomalous object at the very edge of sensors dead ahead. Should be Taurus Dark cloud, but sensor readings are fuzzy at best at this range.”

”Excellent work all, okay now if all goes as planned we should be entering an anomaly,” Somers said, hoping there was on in the region.

It was a case of holding one's breath, suddenly alarms started sounding, indicating some anomaly, the lights and power went briefly out when in space, things that were in motion tend to stay that way, so when the power cut the Tomcat had automatically dropped to impulse and entered the anomaly.

A moment later the power returned and Jasmine consciously relaxed and released her hands from the chair arms and flexed her fingers and began breathing normally.

“Report?” Somers said.

“Sensors coming back online, the beacon for our Starbase is reading loud and clear Captain!” the sensor Officer said.

The whole bridge erupted with great joy and handshakes and light backslaps, Jasmine found herself smiling and exhaling.

“Captain the anomaly has just closed” the sensor officer reported.

“Thank you, Helm set a heading for Starbase 51 best speed and notify base flight control that we will need to dock and some minor repair will be required,” Somers said.

“Yes, Captain” both helm and Communications Officer responded and finally sitting back, she opened up a two-way hail. =/\= All hands this is the Captain, you will be pleased to know, we have returned back to our reality and are making our way back to SB51 =/\= she paused as cheers of joy came over the communications channel, again she smiled and switched the Comms off.

A week later the Tomcat drops from warp and begins its docking procedures, it took half hour to get the ship in and linked up. As the crew began shutting things down and switching power over to the Starbase, Somers again opened a channel.

=/\= All crew, when the docking procedure is complete and we are secured, you are allowed to disembark, you will be on Shore Leave until further notice, please take this time to make sure all is squared before leaving the ship, Bridge out =/\= Somers said and closed the link now she let the crew do their stuff and went to her Ready Room.